Deviance and Social Control

APTER CH 6 Deviance and Social Control M06_HENS8373_Ch06_1-32.indd 2 26/01/12 5:18 AM In just a few moments I was to meet my first Yanomamö, my first primitive man. What would it be like? . I looked up [from my canoe] and gasped when I saw a dozen burly, naked, filthy, hideous men staring at us down the shafts of their drawn arrows. Immense wads of green tobacco were stuck between their lower teeth and lips, making them look even more hideous, and strands of dark-green slime dripped or hung from their noses. We arrived at the village while the men were blowing a hallucinogenic drug up their noses. One of the side effects of the drug is a runny nose. The mucus is always saturated with the green powder, and the Indians usually let it run freely from their nostrils. I just sat there holding my notebook, helpless and pathetic. The whole situation was depressing, and I wondered why I ever decided to switch from civil engineering to anthropology in the first place. [Soon] I was covered with red pigment, the result of a dozen or so complete examinations. These examinations capped an oth- erwise grim day. The Indians They would “clean” would blow their noses into “ their hands, flick as much their hands by spitting of the mucus off that would slimy tobacco juice separate in a snap of the wrist, wipe the residue into into them. their hair, and then care- ” fully examine my face, arms, legs, hair, and the contents of my pockets. I said [in their language], “Your hands are dirty”; my comments were met by the Indians in the following way: they would “clean” their hands by spitting a quantity of slimy tobacco juice into them, rub them together, and then proceed with the examination. This is how Napoleon Chagnon describes the culture shock he felt when he met the Yanomamö tribe of the rain forests of Brazil. His ensuing months of fieldwork continued to bring surprise after surprise, and often Chagnon (1977) could hardly believe his eyes—or his nose. Arizona M06_HENS8373_Ch06_1-32.indd 3 26/01/12 5:18 AM 6-4 CHAPTER 6 Deviance and Social Control If you were to list the deviant behaviors of the Yanomamö, what would you include? The way they appear naked in public? Use hallucinogenic drugs? Let mucus hang from their noses? Or the way they rub hands filled with mucus, spittle, and tobacco juice over a frightened stranger who doesn’t dare to protest? Perhaps. But it isn’t this simple, for as we shall see, deviance is relative. What Is Deviance? Sociologists use the term deviance to refer to any violation of norms, whether the infraction is as minor as driving over the speed limit, as serious as murder, or as humorous as Chagnon’s encounter with the Yanomamö. This deceptively simple definition takes us to the heart of the sociological perspective on deviance, which sociologist Howard S. Becker (1966) described this way: It is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that make something deviant. What Chagnon saw disturbed him, but to the Yanomamö those same behaviors represented normal, everyday life. What was deviant to Chagnon was conformist to the Yanomamö. From their viewpoint, you should check out strangers the way they did—and nakedness is good, as are hallucinogenic drugs. And it is natural to let mucus flow. The Relativity of Deviance. Chagnon’s abrupt introduction to the Yanomamö allows us to see the relativity of deviance, a major point made by symbolic interactionists. Because different groups have different norms, what is deviant to some is not deviant to others. This principle applies not just to cultures but also to groups within the same society. Look at the photo on this page and the one on page 6-6. We explore this idea further in the Cultural Diversity box on the next page. This principle also applies to a specific form of deviance known as crime, the violation of rules that have been written into law. In the extreme, an act that is applauded by one group may be so despised I took this photo on the outskirts of by another group that it is punishable by death. Making a huge profit Hyderabad, India. Is this man deviant? on business deals is one example. Americans who do this are admired. Like Donald If this were a U.S. street, he would be. Trump and Warren Buffet, they may even write books about their exploits. In China, But here? No houses have running however, until recently this same act was considered a crime called profiteering. Those water in his neighborhood, and the found guilty were hanged in a public square as a lesson to all. men, women, and children bathe at the neighborhood water pump. This A Neutral Term. Unlike the general public, sociologists use the term deviance non- man, then, would not be deviant in judgmentally, to refer to any act to which people respond negatively. When sociologists this culture. And yet he is actually mugging for my camera, making the use this term, it does not mean that they agree that an act is bad, just that people judge three bystanders laugh. Does this it negatively. To sociologists, then, all of us are deviants of one sort or another, for we additional factor make this a scene of all violate norms from time to time. deviance? Stigma. To be considered deviant, a person does not even have to do anything. Sociologist Erving Goffman (1963) used the term stigma to refer to characteristics that dis- credit people. These include violations of norms of appearance (a facial birthmark, a huge nose or ears) and norms of ability (blindness, deafness, mental handicaps). Also included are involuntary memberships, such as being a victim of AIDS or the brother of a rapist. The stigma can become a person’s master status, defining him or her as deviant. Recall from Chapter 4 that a master status cuts across all other statuses that a person occupies. How Norms Make Social Life Possible No human group can exist without norms, for norms make social life possible by making behavior predictable. What would life be like if you could not predict what others would do? Imagine for a moment that you have gone to a store to purchase milk: What is deviance? Why is deviance relative? How do norms make social life possible? M06_HENS8373_Ch06_1-32.indd 4 26/01/12 5:18 AM What Is Deviance? 6-5 Cultural Diversity around the World Human Sexuality in Cross-Cultural Perspective Human sexuality illustrates how a group’s definition of an act, not the act itself, determines whether it will be considered deviant. Let’s look at some examples reported by anthro- pologist Robert Edgerton (1976). Norms of sexual behavior vary so widely around the world that what is considered normal in one society may Kenya be considered deviant in another. In Kenya, a group called the Pokot place high emphasis on sexual pleasure, and they expect that both a husband and wife will reach orgasm. If a husband does not satisfy his wife, he is in trouble—especially if she thinks that his failure is because of adultery. If this is so, the wife and her female friends will sneak up on her husband when he is asleep. The Mexico women will tie him up, shout obscenities at him, beat him, and then urinate on him. Before releasing him, as a final gesture of their contempt they will slaughter and eat his favorite ox. The husband’s hours of painful humiliation are intended to make him more dutiful concerning his wife’s conjugal rights. People can also become deviants for following for if this virtuous woman had had an affair—and kept their group’s ideal norms instead of its real her mouth shut—she would not have become a norms. As with many groups, the Zapotec deviant. Clearly, real norms can conflict with Indians of Mexico profess that sexual ideal norms—another illustration of the gap relations should take place exclusively between ideal and real culture. between husband and wife. However, the Zapotec also have a covert norm, an unspoken understanding, that mar- For↑ Your Consideration ried people will have affairs, but that How do the behaviors of the Pokot they will be discreet about them. In one wives and husbands mentioned here Zapotec community, the only person who look from the perspective of U.S. norms? did not have an extramarital affair was What are those U.S. norms? What norms condemned by everyone in the village. did the Zapotec woman break? (We The reason was not that she did not have discussed this concept in Chapter 2.) an affair but that she told the other wives the names of the women their husbands were sleeping with. It is an interesting case, A Pokot married woman, Kenya Suppose the clerk says, “I won’t sell you any milk. We’re overstocked with soda, and I’m not going to sell anyone milk until our soda inventory is reduced.” You don’t like it, but you decide to buy a case of soda. At the checkout, the clerk says, “I hope you don’t mind, but there’s a $5 service charge on every fifteenth customer.” You, of course, are the fifteenth. Just as you start to leave, another clerk stops you and says, “We’re not working any- more. We decided to have a party.” Suddenly a CD player begins to blast, and everyone in the store begins to dance.

Load more